Sunday, June 30, 2013

Earlier this month, I participated in Viva Las Vegas Stamps' button fairy swap. If you would like to see all of the button fairies created by the fabulous designers who participated in the swap , click here. Here is my finished button fairy.

Partially color the whole image (left) with Copic markers and cut out entire image. Then fussy cut each patterned paper piece, as shown on the right.

Lay pieces onto a piece of fun foam and emboss each of the pieces with a large ball stylus tool to "cup" them, giving them some dimension.

Adhere each printed, embossed piece over the whole image, using foam dots or a dimensional glue. Glue your "dimensionalized" balloon lady to the center of the wings. See close up photo below.

Now it's time to make the button tail for the fairy. I used 22 gauge bronze colored wire, cut to approximately 12" long. I made a wrapped loop at the bottom, and threaded my buttons onto the wire from the bottom up.

I measured the height of my balloon lady, in this case it was approximately 4", and made a larger loop in the wire for hanging. I used Helmar 450 glue to adhere the wire to the back of the solid wing.

This is how it should look on the back.

To finish off the back, I adhered the second solid black wing over the wire to give it a nice, clean look.

I added meal gears to some of the buttons, and hung some charms from the bottom loop.

Here is a closeup of the hanging loop at the top, which can be bent out of sight. I also added a tiny bit of pearl paint to the hat.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog. I have some amazing news to share with you today. I am so excited to tell you that I have been chosen to continue as a Design Team Member for The Robin's Nest for another term. I have been on the design team for a year now, and I cannot believe how fast the time has passed. I feel very fortunate to work with such a wonderful, accomplished group of designers, and I am so honored to be able to continue to be a part of this team. I will always strive to bring you the best creative ideas possible, and I hope you will check back often. I would also love for you to visit The Robin's Nest website and blog regularly to see what the rest of the team is creating for you. Many thanks for all of your support and for your time spent visiting my blog. Here's wishing you many happy hours doing what you love, creating art. Barbara

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog. Today, I am re-applying to the Sin City Stamps design team because I love their stamps, and I love sharing the projects I make with them. So, I want to show you how to make a Magic Card! I believe I have finally unlocked the mysteries behind the Magic card and simplified how to make one in any size. No specific measurements needed. Let me share with you what I have discovered.

First, I want to show you the card before the magic happens. While the card is pretty, the image is pretty plain right now.

Copy stamped image onto the clear transparency, using your inkjet printer. (Follow transparency directions.) Allow transparency to dry well. (NOTE: You can stamp the image onto the transparency with an archival ink, like Stazon, but I tend to get a better image through my printer.)

Use clear transparency image to figure placement for window opening. Move it around to determine where you want to cut out your window opening. I decided to offset, rather than center, my window.

Remove print paper and re-align die with pencil marks. Tape die in place with low tack tape and run card through die cut machine. (NOTE: As you can see, the pencil mark does not align with the cut edge of the paper, but rather with the metal edge of the die. So, to align the die properly, you need to align the metal edge of the die with the pencil mark.)

You now have matching openings in both the card base and print paper layer. The reason for cutting them separately is because wafer thin dies will not cut through both the paper and card stock at the same time.

Center transparency image through card window, trim any excess and adhere over opening on front of card.

To make the sliding panel, cut a piece of the same white card stock to 4" x 6", trim off 1/4" from each long side, but stopping 1/4" from the bottom, which will leave 1/4" tabs on either side.

Add large eyelet and ribbon (or a pull tab) to top of slider panel. Stamp "Happy Birthday" from the Steampunk Circus plate with on the back.

Open card up, and place slider panel on top of transparency window. (NOTE: Remember, you are now working on the inside of the card, and the window is beneath the slider panel in this photo). Place adhesive along top (but not beneath the slider part), bottom and side edge of card, as shown, and close card.

Adhesive placement photo

Use the two largest dies from the set to make a frame for the front. The reverse side of this paper is red print, but I was trying to avoid the bird image to use later, so I arranged my dies on the back of it.

Dies taped together to prevent movement

Adhere to front, as shown. The next three photos will reveal the magic. See the color start to appear?

Oh my gosh, isn't this fun? I just love magic cards. But one more thing I did was to stamp Live, Love, Laugh from the Dressforms plate onto the paper ticket. The ticket had a glossy finish, so I used the black Archival ink for this and dried each word before stamping the next word to prevent smearing.

Now, while making this card, I discovered the magical key to assembly, (at least for me) without precise measurements for any card. Even though I've made these cards many times before, my mind simply could not compute the simplicity I am about to share with you.

To make any slider panel for any shape or size window, the key is to make it at least 1" larger than the widest width of the window opening so that when you trim 1/4" off of each edge, you will still have 1/2" left to cover the opening. For the slider length, you want the top of the slider to meet the top of the card so you can add a pull tab or ribbon. The slider bottom needs to extend past the bottom of the window opening at least 1/2" to allow for your tabs and where you place your adhesive. See adhesive placement photo above.

Bottom line is, you do not have to cut only square or rectangular windows, as long as the slider will cover the entire window on the inside, at its widest points for irregular shapes, and uncover the stamped image completely when the slider panel is pulled. And you can have the slider pull up, down, or even from the side, if it works with the image.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you were able to stick with me to the end, and if you are reading this, then you succeeded. And as always, I hope you will visit the Sin City Stamps blog for more inspiration from the design team, and check out their online store to see their absolutely fabulous stamps and plates.

As always, have a great week, thanks for stopping by, and wish me luck!